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Mark Mulligan: The Two Spotify Charts You Need To See

by Mark Mulligan

Spotify’s recently released 2015 financials created an interesting story: strong revenue growth and market domination, along with widening losses at the bottom line. Midia Research founder Mark Mulligan peels back the layers to analyze underlying dynamics. “Rights costs are the Spotify’s Achilles Heel.” Can scaling audience growth give Spotify enough leverage to gain better label rates? If not, the outcome might be unwelcome to those rights-holders. This guest column is a must-read. Continue Reading

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After The Download: When Apple Turns Off The iTunes Store

Guest columnist Mark Mulligan projects the pace of disruption as consumers fade back from purchasing music downloads. “When new formats race to the fore it is easy to make the mistake of taking an eye off the legacy formats. This is risky because they usually still account for very large portions of existing revenue.” But a “download collapse” will happen to the iTunes Music Store. Continue Reading

Mark Mulligan: Spotify’s Billion Dollar Challenge

by Mark Mulligan

Spotify just changed the rules of the game, raising an unprecedented $1 billion in convertible debt. Guest columnist Mark Mulligan analyzes — what is Spotify’s strategy, and where will growth come from. One key: “The 9.99 subscription model is incredibly difficult (perhaps impossible) to run profitably at scale.” Continue Reading